Monday, February 8, 2016

Did you ever wish you could take a nice bottle of wine with you on a hike? If you've ever tried to make that happen you know there are problems involved. The bottle is heavy in your pack. It's glass, so you have to be careful it doesn't break and you have to haul the empty back out. Really not worth the trouble.

Sure, you can always open a bottle beforehand, pour some into a lightweight container, and carry it that way. But it's just not the same and the wine loses some of its flavor along the way.....

Oregon-basedNaked Winery has set out to resolve these problems with their new line of wines which they call "Outdoor Vino." Outdoor Vino is bottled in BPA-free, recyclable and resealable plastic wine bottles.

Although the Outdoor Vino bottles look smaller than traditional glass wine bottles, according to Naked Winery, they actually hold the same amount of wine. Flavors include Rambling Red, Sundress Sweet, Picnic Table Pink and Wanderlust White.

Check out Naked Winery's promo video, where they intentionally throw an Outdoor Vino wine bottle on their floor to demonstrate its ability to resist breakage (click screenshot to see video):

The flavor we reviewed was "Wanderlust White," which Naked Winery says "bursts in your mouth like a summer fruit salad and leaves a honeysuckle tingle on your tongue."

I am definitely not a wine connoisseur, but I can vouch that this is a pretty apt description. Wanderlust White had a taste that was indeed fresh and fruity, with a pleasant sweetness that was not overbearing. A lady friend who hiked out with me also drank a glass, and she agreed with my description. Both of us really enjoyed the wine and it helped to make our hiking trip even better.

The verdict? I really like the idea of Outdoor Vino. At $18 a bottle, the price is definitely reasonable. The light weight allows for it to be carried without breaking your back. This would come in especially handy if you wanted sneak a few bottles of it into your pack and surprise your friends at the next backwoods campfire get-together.

All in all, a great wine option for those who venture into the backcountry on foot and want to jazz up their adventures with a little wine.

5 out of 5 Stars (Highly recommended)

To purchase Outdoor Vino or for more information, visit Naked Winery at:

Jason Schwartz is the founder and senior editor of Rocky Mountain Bushcraft. He is a former Red Cross certified Wilderness & Remote First Aid Instructor, and has taught bushcraft and wilderness survival techniques to the Boy Scouts of America, interned with the US Forest Service, and studied wilderness survival, forestry and wildland firefighting at Colorado Mountain College in Leadville, Colorado. Jason has also written for the The New Pioneer and Backpacker, including writing the "Tinder Finder" portion of Backpacker's "Complete Guide to Fire," which won a 2015 National Magazine Award (NMA). Email him at rockymountainbushcraft @ hotmail.com (without spaces)

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Just wanted to give you an update on Morakniv's new "Garberg" knife. It is Mora's first full tang knife, and features a Mora Black Carbon-style blade, upgraded 14C28N Sandvik Stainless, a redesigned, ultra-tough synthetic Delrin handle, complete with a Fallkniven-esque style exposed pommel. It will come with two sheath options. One is a synthetic sheath with multiple attachment options, and the other is a traditional flap-style leather sheath. To see photos of the Garberg's new sheaths, check out our SHOT Show report here.

Industrial Revolution, Mora's US Distributor, gave out advanced test samples to three media outlets at SHOT Show. The great news is that Rocky Mountain Bushcraft was one of the outlets chosen to test and review this knife ahead of consumer release. Special thanks to Industrial Revolution for selecting RMB. We're excited to get the chance to put the "Garberg" through it's paces.

Since Mora's announcement of this knife at SHOT Show 2016, the Garberg has generated huge excitement. Why? It is the first time in Mora's 125 year history that they've produced a full-tang knife.

Fans of the popular Swedish knife company have been clamoring for years for Mora to offer a full-tang option over their traditionalstick-tangor3/4 tang blades. Most people thought it would never happen (including yours truly, to be perfectly honest). Then, just 2 weeks ago, Mora completely surprised the knife world with the announcement of the Garberg. Since then, the internet has been abuzz with talk about this exciting new offering.

Although Mora's current stick-tang and 3/4 tang knives are well built and very tough, for survival use a full tang is stronger. Plus, when the tang is exposed on the back of the handle as shown below, it allows batoning directly on the back of the handle without damaging it, and it can be used as a crude hammer.

The Garberg's exposed tang, also known as a "pommel."

The knife in the photos is the sample we received at SHOT Show, and it is so new that we have not yet received the sheath.

Jason Schwartz is the founder and senior editor of Rocky Mountain Bushcraft. He is a former Red Cross certified Wilderness & Remote First Aid Instructor, and has taught bushcraft and wilderness survival techniques to the Boy Scouts of America, interned with the US Forest Service, and studied wilderness survival, forestry and wildland firefighting at Colorado Mountain College in Leadville, Colorado. Jason has also written for the The New Pioneer and Backpacker, including writing the "Tinder Finder" portion of Backpacker's "Complete Guide to Fire," which won a 2015 National Magazine Award (NMA). Email him at rockymountainbushcraft @ hotmail.com (without spaces)

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Longtime fans of Cold Steel's classic SRK (Survival Rescue Knife), take note! The Ventura, California based knife company is planning to release a CPM-3V high carbon steel version of the SRK sometime in the next few weeks.

This is great news. Cold Steel's original SRK, built with Camillus Cutlery Company'sCarbon V High Carbon Steel (a high quality carbon steel similar to 1095 steel) was widely praised for its edge holding, toughness and ease of sharpening.

Sadly, Cold Steel was forced to stop using Carbon V after Camillus's bankruptcy in 2007. Since then, the SRK has been built with AUS8 Stainless, a serviceable but slightly inferior Japanese stainless that is roughly equivalent to American 440B Stainless.

Having owned several Carbon V and AUS8 SRK's over the years, I've found the AUS8 versions to be inferior in edge-holding and ease of sharpening compared to their Carbon V predecessors. If you check around the knife forums, you'll find that most longtime fans of the SRK tend to agree with this sentiment.

One of my original Carbon V SRK's:

The move to release the SRK in CPM-3V, a semi-stainless, high-carbon "super steel" that is extremely tough and resistant to chipping and breaking, is an excellent decision by Cold Steel and should generate lots of excitement among longtime fans of the SRK.

I should note that Cold Steel also offers the SRK in their laminated San Mai III VG-1 stainless, which has received great overall reviews since its release a couple of years ago. But for most of us who owned the original Carbon V version, an SRK milled from a solid block of ultra-tough CPM-3V steel is music to our ears, and what the SRK was meant to be.

I definitely plan to get my hands on this knife sometime this year and give it a test run. Now, if only Cold Steel would give the SRK a factory convexed edge, an exposed pommel, and a firesteel loop on the sheath, it would be survival knife heaven.

Jason Schwartz is the founder and senior editor of Rocky Mountain Bushcraft. He is a former Red Cross certified Wilderness & Remote First Aid Instructor, and has taught bushcraft and wilderness survival techniques to the Boy Scouts of America, interned with the US Forest Service, and studied wilderness survival, forestry and wildland firefighting at Colorado Mountain College in Leadville, Colorado. Jason has also written for the The New Pioneer and Backpacker, including writing the "Tinder Finder" portion of Backpacker's "Complete Guide to Fire," which won a 2015 National Magazine Award (NMA). Email him at rockymountainbushcraft @ hotmail.com (without spaces)